Tag "Emmanuel Macron"

Two months ago, the UN’s climate change panel warned that unless humanity takes drastic action, we will only have 12 years to save the planet from disaster.
Representatives from almost 200 nations are currently meeting in the Polish coal-mining town of Katowice to try to turn the pledges made in Paris in 2015 into a political reality.
There are, with children in Australia walking out of school to protest the climate inaction, signs of generational optimism.
On the other hand, we have Donald Trump dismissing his own government’s climate report, while the incoming Bolsonaro administration is refusing to host next year’s climate talks in Brazil.
There is still time to save the world but at the moment, Robin McKie writes, a climate catastrophe looks inevitable – and everywhere will be affected.
With the White House actively uninterested in the process in Poland, a key role will fall to Obama’s “climate diaspora” – a group of former state department climate officials now working in the private sector who are doing all they can to protect the goals agreed in Paris.
In a fascinating piece, Karl Mathiesen profiles the likes of Sue Biniaz and Todd Stern, who are trying to save the Paris accord from their own president.
As Emmanuel Macron sat with other G20 leaders in Buenos Aires, the group of tax protesters known as the gilets jaunes held a third weekend of demonstrations.
The violence in France brought the government to crisis point.
The battle with the “yellow vests” is the biggest challenge to Macron since he took office last May, writes our Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis.

The French president announced extra finance to help developing countries adopt clean energy at the International Solar Alliance launch in New Delhi France will spend an extra €700 million euros ($862m) by 2022 to help developing countries with their solar energy projects, president Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday.
“Our solar mamas did not wait for us,” he said, referring to a group of women solar engineers.
“They started to act and deliver complete results.
India and France are co-hosting the first International Solar Alliance summit in New Delhi.
Heads of state of 23 nations were present at the event.
Sixty countries have signed the agreement to join the alliance.
Macron said member countries made up three-fourths of the world population, PTI reported.
At the event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested reading the Vedas to find ways to control climate change.
“The Vedas consider the sun as the soul of the world, it has been considered as a life nurturer,” he said.
“Today, for combating climate change, we need to look at this ancient idea to find a way.” Modi also proposed a 10-point action plan to make affordable solar energy technology available to all nations.

French president did not announce any new climate initiatives with Xi Jinping on China visit, but his efforts to learn the language went viral French president Emmanuel Macron charmed the Chinese public by delivering his climate slogan “make our planet great again” in Mandarin during a three-day visit to China.
Parce que le climat parle à tout le monde : “Make our planet great again” … en chinois.
pic.twitter.com/C6UTeP16Nr — Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 8, 2018 Observers hoping for new climate change initiatives were disappointed by a joint statement from Macron and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, however.
Climate activists have pinned high hopes on the two leaders to renew political momentum for the international climate treaty that aims to limit global temperature rise within 2C, despite the White House.
Report: Macron summit touts green finance progress – despite Trump Yet in their joint statement, released by Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday, Macron and Xi focused on what was already agreed.
The two reassured each other they would “deepen cooperation” on environment and climate change, and applauded each other’s recent achievements: the Paris One Planet Summit hosted by France and soft launch of a national emissions trading scheme in China.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with progress that had been made on green financing since China hosted the G20 summit in Hangzhou in 2016, according to the statement.
As a demonstration of the two countries’ commitment to multilateralism, Xi and Macron said they will “keep constructive dialogues on international treaties”, including biodiversity, nature conservation and protecting marine life.
Li Shuo, a senior climate campaigner with Greenpeace, said the dialogue “strikes the right tone for this critical year of climate action, when over 190 nations are expected to work out detailed rules to implement Paris Agreement.
“Going forward, a Sino-France alliance is critical in effectively implementing the Paris Agreement and strengthening global climate ambition.” Among a string of business deals with China Macron secured during his visits, cooperation deals on nuclear and aviation were framed as means to tackle climate change by some Chinese observers.

The Associated Press reports that French President Emmanuel Macron has been reminiscing about his meetings with Donald Trump, including their conversation about the Paris climate accord.
Let’s play along, however, and assume that Trump really is open to reentering the Paris accord if the U.S. commitment is to his liking.
Energy savings in federal agencies: Last March, President Trump ordered all federal agencies to improve government efficiency by identifying where they can eliminate unnecessary offices and programs.
The federal government is the nation’s biggest energy consumer.
Among other sustainability goals, it directed federal agencies to reduce their energy use 3% annually.
That goal is in line with President Trump’s objective to increase funding for U.S. forces.
Climate action by state and local governments: After President Trump withdrew from the Paris climate accord, an encouraging number of states and localities said they would help keep the United States’ original commitment to reduce carbon emissions 26% by 2025 compared to 2005.
An example is the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado.
Rather, he can focus on how the laboratory does joint research with American companies and offers technical assistance to states and localities.
A 30% improvement in U.S. energy productivity.

That French plan to attract climate scientists?
It’s working.. After his election, French president Emmanuel Macron created a program setting aside $69 million to fund researchers, especially from the U.S., to ply their trade in France.
“Here, you are welcome,” Macron told scientists via Twitter, in a not-so-subtle jab at President Trump.
According to France’s national research agency, hundreds of climate scientists from around the world have applied for the program.
Many hail from the U.S.
The agency says most applicants are looking for short sabbaticals, but more than 150 applied to stay for four or more years.
Macron’s idea has its detractors.
French researchers felt snubbed because their president built a shiny website to attract new talent at a time when domestic science needed more funds, according to Science.
Grist’s own Nathanael Johnson pleaded with leading American climate researchers to “resist France’s allure” because their smarts are so needed here.
But when the U.S. administration casts aside scientists every chance it gets, it’s hard to argue with researchers’ interest in going where they’re wanted.

Trump may have just pulled the ol’ bait-and-switch on France’s president.. After a face-to-face meeting with President Trump in Paris over the weekend, Emmanuel Macron said he might have convinced the notorious climate denier to reconsider the Paris climate agreement.
“Donald Trump listened to me,” Macron told a French newspaper.
“He understood the reason for my position.” The French president has pointedly criticized Trump’s stance on climate change, even inviting U.S. scientists to move to France so they could pursue their research freely.
Trump’s reaction to their conversation was decidedly less encouraging.
“Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord, we’ll see what happens,” he told the press.
That type of noncommittal comment is a classic Trumpian maneuver.
In the past, he said he’d keep Americans “in suspense” about whether he would accept losing the election and also told New York Times journalists “I think you’re going to be fine” when asked about his commitment to the First Amendment.
(Just look at how that turned out.)
It’s not the first time we’ve heard rumors about prominent figures having Trump’s ear on climate, to no avail.
So much for Ivanka the Climate Hawk, right?

Donald Trump offers hand of friendship to Emmanuel Macron on Paris visit.
Donald Trump has made a gushing show of friendship to the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, saying the two countries had an “unbreakable bond” , pledging to draw up a road map for post-conflict Syria, and asserting that the two leaders could work together despite clear differences on climate change.
But when he appeared alongside Macron under the golden chandeliers of the Élysée Palace after two hours of talks about Syria, Iraq and counter-terrorism, Trump immediately faced fresh questions over allegations that his family sought to collude with Russia to win the 2016 US election.
He patted Macron on the back several times and, during a number of handshakes, both men were measured, not repeating their earlier white-knuckled standoff in Brussels.
Soon afterwards, the presidential couples toured the historic military site and visited Napoleon’s tomb, with Trump remarking on France’s “great history”.
After visiting Napoleon’s tomb, Trump turned to Macron and said: “You wanna ride?” He then gave the French president a lift to the Élysée Palace in “the Beast”, the US presidential armoured car.
Trump was asked by journalists about his previous comment on France being overrun with terrorists and being not fit to visit, Trump said Paris “is going to be just fine” mostly because France now has “a great” and “tough” president.
The military pomp of the Trump visit reflected Macron’s new style of showmanship diplomacy, seen when he invited Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to the Palace of Versailles.
Macron and Trump will attend the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Élysée on Friday morning, before the Trumps return to Washington.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the leftwing party France Unbowed, said last month that Trump was “not at all welcome” on Bastille Day.

Back in February, when France’s then presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron thumbed his nose at President Donald Trump and invited jaded U.S. scientists and inventors to come build a sustainable future in France, I applauded and played along.
“[L]et’s face it,” I wrote.
“France is a tough sell.
The food is irritatingly fresh, the architecture tends to distract people from their cellphones, and the high-speed rail lines get in the way of SUVs.” But now that Macron is president and has backed up his words with substance, setting up a program to bring American climate visionaries to France, it’s no longer funny.
It’s a terrible idea.
Do you hear me, Katharine Hayhoe?
you say, after thumbing through your French phrasebook.
Because the United States, the world’s second-biggest polluter, is a much more pernicious driver of climate change than France, the 18th.
He’s offering a four-year grant to people from anywhere in the world, so they can come work on climate change projects in France.
But c’mon, be real: Nobody goes to France to live for just four years.

About

Finding a single source of news on niche topics can be time consuming – until now. The ContentQube Network uses “smart” technology to curate content trending on social media and search based on keywords and categories. Our content discovery engine helps readers stay updated on the latest trends, and introduces them to new publishers daily. We are a referrer to some of the biggest names in the business.

Disclaimer: All the content aggregated is for informational purposes only. The content is owned by the third parties sourced within each article, unless otherwise noted. Attribution and links to the original source are included in each article. OneQube is not responsible for the accuracy of the aforementioned content. If you are the publisher of any of this content and are not interested in the referral traffic, contact us and we will remove the article within 24 hours.